Isaiah 64:5
Hebrew Bible
3 When you performed awesome deeds that took us by surprise, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4 Since ancient times no one has heard or perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who intervenes for those who wait for him. 5 You assist those who delight in doing what is right, who observe your commandments. Look, you were angry because we violated them continually. How then can we be saved? 6 We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. We all wither like a leaf; our sins carry us away like the wind.
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Jonathan Isaiah 64:4
Targum
3 And since the world was, ear hath not heard the report of such mighty deeds, nor hearkened to the speech of rapture, nor hath eye seen, what Thy people saw, the Shekinah of Thy glory, O Lord; for there is none besides Thee, who will do such things for Thy righteous people, who were of old; who hope for Thy salvation. 4 The works of our righteous fathers were acceptable in Your sight, who rejoiced to do Your will in truth and in righteousness: in the way of Thy goodness and mercy they remembered Thy fear whenever Thy wrath from Thy presence was upon us, because we had sinned: on account of the works of our righteous fathers, we have been saved. 5 But we are all as an unclean thing; all our righteousnesses are as an abominable garment, and we all do fade as the fading of a leaf; and because of our sins, we are taken away as by the wind.
Date: 200-300 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... the meturgeman does not limit the vision to the prophet: the Shekhinah is seen by “your people.” The immediacy of the early hope for the return of the Shekhinah (compare 63:17) is probably articulated in this passage. The idea of patriarchal blessings comes to expression again in verse 5 (compare 29:23; 43:7; 62:6); indeed, it is the strongest expression of the idea of the “merits of the fathers” in the Targum. But 62:6 makes it quite plain that these benefits are not automatic: Israel’s vocation is to align himself with the patriarchs, in which position the blessings of the patriarchs are available to him ..."
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